The Ucal McKenzie Breakaway Foundation
Each set of cards comes with five yellow envelopes and a special forward by Steven Heller. 100% proceeds of this purchase will go towards funding The Breakaway Foundation’s heart health initiatives, including crisis management drills, and defibrillator training and awareness programs.
UMBF Master of Hearts Notecard Project Forward by Steven Heller
“The heart is a resilient little muscle,” notes Woody Allen in Hannah and Her Sisters. Or was it Annie Hall? No matter. He was nevertheless correct. It is resilient as the body’s engine. Few things are designed as well. And yet it is fragile too. Good design does not always insure lasting function. In theory, perhaps, good design is that which transcends the ephemeral. Yet in practice, even things designed to last are subject to the whims of the natural and unnatural forces of life. The heart is a component of the most ephemeral of all things. It is both leads and follows and is subject to the vicissitudes of existence. This series of notecards for the Breakaway Foundation are made of disposable materials – paper and ink – but the messages they communicate are arguably as resilient as the little muscle. Like the heart these cards trigger a mnemonic beat – a reminder that we are alive and, more important, to stay healthy we must never take the beat of our heart for granted. We must always remember that even the most perfect designs require care. Decay is built into human design – nature’s forced obsolescence – yet it needn’t be as inevitable as it sounds as long as resilience is not abused or taken for granted.
This project was made possible with a Sappi Ideas that Matter grant
Thank you to our partners and contributing artists:
James Adame, Ian Dapot, Steven Heller, Jan Moscowitz, Chris Pullman, Sappi Fine Papers, , and Deschamps Printing.
Meet the Artists
James Adame
jamesadame.com
Art Concept
“The heart; it loves, plays and it sometimes breaks. I wanted my concept to pay memorial to fallen athletes and remind young athletes to be mindful of their heart health in conjunction with strength and training.
I created a 3D heart form (with the help of CGI aficionado David Onessimo) then created the piece utilizing illustrations, photos and a bit of retouching to make the composition. One of my favorite styles is surrealism incorporating symbolism and abstract items joined together to tell a story.”
Bio
Since 1992 James Adame has been honing his craft and adding tools to his toolbox in advertising and design. He actually started training for his career
as soon as he could pickup a pencil, intrigued by light, shadows, color and how to make it a magically come to life on paper. He’d spend hours drawing still lifes of his mothers silk flowers and antique vases, trying to capture
reality and the nuances of nature. Later that carried over into his training as an art director and designer. James is currently an associated design director at Hill Holliday.
James has a beautiful daughter that goes to school at the SMFA and he
enjoys fishing and danish modern stuff.
Ian Dapot
ideo.com
Art Concept
“Inspired by passion in the things and patterns around us every day.”
Bio
Ian Dapot is a Communication Design Lead at IDEO, where he works multidisciplinary teams to shape strategies and design opportunities in Retail Experience, Service, and Communication. Ian is also an active writer and lecturer on the emerging roles of design and designers in business and innovation today.
Before joining IDEO Ian worked on publication and retail experience projects with in the arts and fashion industries. His work has appeared in Communication Arts, Print, and publications on information design, and has been recognized by the IDSA, Adobe, and the Ad Club.
Suzanne McKenzie
buoy-inc.com
Art Concept
“I’m inspired every day by Ucal’s passion for soccer and for helping city youth reach their potential, on and off the field, through the game he loved so much. Caring naturally ties into taking care of our hearts – by assuring that our coaches, teammates, friends, families, and communities are better educated to prevent health crisis, and are better prepared to handle crisis. I dedicate my artwork and this project to Ucal, and to those athletes we’ve lost to sudden cardiac arrest.”
Bio
Suzanne is the heart and soul of Buoy Inc, focusing on completing work for clients with social impact as main component of their practice and objectives.
She has spent over 12 years in the advertising and design consultancy worlds, forming a network of relationships with like-minded professionals as she developed her experience.
During her nine years at Arnold Worldwide, Suzanne oversaw the concept
of several brands, including branding, experience, brand promotion, apparel design, and collateral projects for such clients as ESPN, the truth, Celebrity Cruises, Timberland, and Ocean Spray. After Arnold, she worked for design consultancies Motiv and Continuum, focusing on retail design, seasonal retail design, and packaging for Sprint, American Express, and Keurig.
Not only does Suzanne combine great design with all that is good, but she also served on the AIGA Boston Board from 2004-2010, two of the years as President. She is a part-time faculty member of the New England School of Art and Design at Suffolk University, teaching the Designing the Greater Good graduate-level course.
Jan Moscowitz
mooremoscowitz.com
Art Concept
“When Suzanne asked me if I'd contribute to this project, as a colleague, I was honored; and as a wife who's walked in her shoes, I was touched and moved.
How could I create an original piece to combine soccer with one of the foundation's core principals -- passion?
I reflected on my relationship with my husband -- the passionate conversations we shared. The dialogue, the back and forth of talking and listening, the vibrancy and seduction of our interactions. I invoked Tim's style as an accomplished illustrator with the use of collage, his love for color, and his quick English wit. During my exploration of ideas I tried to stay focused on being in the process rather than the solution, and most importantly have fun and play!
Tim remains in these sudden reminders, that come out of nowhere, about of the power of play, curiosity, purpose, passion and love.”
Bio
Jan is the creative director of Moore Moscowitz, the communication design
firm she and her late husband, Tim Moore, co-founded in London in 1991.
Working with collaborators, she carries on doing what she does best: making clients happy. Jan listens carefully and responds thoughtfully. She challenges rationality and solves irrational challenges with skill, grace, and humor. Jan transforms raw content and unreasonable requests into art that promotes, announces, or sells products. In addition to her work at Moore Moscowitz, Jan’s passion for and commitment to the design profession extends to her influential involvement in the American Institute for Graphic Arts. She was President of the Boston chapter’s board from 1997-1999.
Jan has served as an adjunct professor of graphic design at Northeastern University and the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. Committed to making a difference while broadening her own worldview, Jan is an active volunteer for several nonprofit organizations.
Chris Pullman
Art Concept
“When I thought about the three D’s – Dedication, Discipline and Determination – it seemed to me from my years as a swimmer that there was another important D: Delight – the love of the sport and the affection that develops among teammates and between the team and the coach. I also noticed for the first time the unusual geometry of the ball: pentagons surrounded by hexagons; and those pentagons looked an awful lot like hearts!”
Bio
Chris Pullman served for 35 years as VP of Design and Branding at WGBH,
public broadcasting in Boston, which supplies about 30% of the PBS prime
time schedule (think: NOVA, American Experience, Frontline, Antiques
Roadshow, etc.) and the bulk of PBS.ORG websites. He and his staff were
responsible for the visual personality of WGBH as expressed through its
on-air titles, credits and animation, promotional and sales support, classroom
materials, and interactive media.
From 2002-2006 Chris acted as the design client for WGBH’s new 340,000
sq. ft. studio and headquarters facility, working with the architect, Polshek
Partnership, to define the building’s character and functionality, and to direct
the architectural graphics, visitor experience features, and audio-visual displays.
He left WGBH in 2008 to pursue life 2.0, concentrating on teaching and painting.
When he graduated with an MFA from Yale in 1966 he began teaching in the
graduate design program. He has taught there ever since, with a current focus
in the fundamentals of time-based design, a discipline that he introduced into
the curriculum in the early 90’s.
He has lectured widely on design and media to schools and professional
organizations, has been active in the AIGA, and has served on the boards of
the Design Management Institute and the Corporate Design Foundation. In
2002 he was honored with the American Institute of Graphic Arts Medal for
"excellence over a lifetime of work."
(Well, maybe not quite yet.
